- The Florida Legislature proposes raising homestead exemptions from $50,000 to $250,000, potentially reducing taxable property values by 15.69% to 44.51% in Alachua County.
- Alachua County could lose $48.9 million in revenue, while the city of Gainesville might lose $12.6 million under the proposed exemption increase.
- High Springs faces the highest revenue loss among local cities at $1.82 million due to a 44% reduction in taxable value on 2,251 properties.
The Florida Legislature is advancing a proposal to raise homestead exemptions from $50,000 to $250,000 if approved by citizens, and local cities are counting the cost to their budgets.
For Alachua County and its nine municipalities, the $250,000 would mean anywhere from a 15.69% to a 44.51% reduction in their taxable values, using 2025 numbers.
The biggest loser would be High Springs with 2,251 homesteaded properties and the 44% reduction. The percentage would translate to $1.82 million in less revenue if the higher homestead exemption were in place for the current fiscal year. The city’s total general fund revenues were projected to hit $5.2 million in the current budget, with $3.9 million from property taxes.
Alachua County, though, would lose the most revenue at $48.9 million, followed by the city of Gainesville at $12 million.
According to the Alachua County Property Appraiser, there are 54,774 homesteaded properties in the county. The town of LaCrosse has the fewest, at 82, resulting in an estimated revenue loss of $30,000.
Alachua County levied $190 million in property tax revenue for the current fiscal year, plus another $35 million from the MSTU Law Enforcement tax. In a press release, the county said it’s required to spend $178 million of that revenue on mandated services like the sheriff’s office, state attorney, public defender, tax collector and supervisor of elections.
The sheriff’s office accounts for the bulk of the funding, at $136 million.
The county said the $250,000 homestead exemption would leave around $11 million in general revenue for the following services: community redevelopment agency commitments, animal resources, parks, codes enforcement, community support services such as affordable and workforce housing programs, roads, growth management functions not covered by fees, facilities and other core county operations, including administrative functions.
The county does have some special revenue streams, like its one-cent infrastructure surtax, that can assist in some of those areas.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and state republicans have heralded the homestead increases as a tax saver for residents and a way to make homes affordable, while also aiming at local taxing authorities for what they’ve called wasteful spending.
A supermajority of the Florida Legislature voted in favor of the proposal on Tuesday, and now voters will have the final say, needing 60% approval to pass.
DeSantis said the $250,000 homestead exemption would eliminate property taxes for 60% of Florida homeowners—though a PolitiFact check placed the number at 30%.
Alachua County taxable value loss with 2025 numbers under the new proposal:
Alachua County
- $48.9 million estimated revenue loss
- $6.44 billion taxable value loss
City of Gainesville
- $12.6 million estimated revenue loss
- $1.87 billion taxable value loss
City of Alachua
- $2.38 million estimated revenue loss
- $381.06 million taxable value loss
City of Archer
- $100,000 estimated revenue loss
- $15.2 million taxable value loss
City of Hawthorne
- $120,000 estimated revenue loss
- $19.35 million taxable value loss
City of High Springs
- $1.82 million estimated revenue loss
- $259.8 million taxable value loss
Town of LaCrosse
- $30,000 estimated revenue loss
- $5 million taxable value loss
Town of Micanopy
- $80,000 estimated revenue loss
- $15.4 million taxable value loss
City of Newberry
- $2 million estimated revenue loss
- $340.2 million taxable value loss
I would prefer a smaller one time increase and then an annual ~3% increase after that. I feel that this one time 5X increase would be destructive to our community.
City leaders need to learn how to balance their books better. They should be ready for real state values to decrease also. They projected 9% increase in taxable value, in which Universe?
Not only cities. County waist a lot of frivolous spending.
Why do you think lower property tax will lower real estate values? Reduced property tax costs will likely increase home buyer demand and push home values at all price points higher.
Our local politicians have historically looked at the citizens as little ATM machines from which they can withdraw funds to waste on pet projects. Think…cement plant, biomass plant and the CHOICE’s debacle as examples. All expensive, all useless. Has anyone checked lately to see where the CHOICES money went?
Now, governor Desantis is looking out for the people of Florida, which is a foreign concept for politicians. Alachua County could have cut the obscene gas tax and helped us out, but nope, there was litteral swamp land to buy.
So, now local politicians will have to decide on wear to spend fewer dollars, much like citizens do. Hurrah for Governor Desantis and boo to local politicians for whining and scaring citizens with empty threats to cut fire and police protection.
But, have no fear. Politicians and staff are busy coming up with new ways to fleece us.
The Alachua County CHOICES healthcare program did not cost taxpayers anything through property taxes. Instead, it was funded by a voter-approved 0.25% (one-quarter cent) local sales surtax. The total cost to an individual depended entirely on their personal retail spending habits between 2005 and 2011.
And personally, it saved my life.
Other comment rejected. So much for freedom of speech.
Tax collectors never get enough. Now they are up to there same old tricks insight fear.
Dumb idea.
Explain
Of course Alachua county would lose the most revenue.. Crazy high property taxes.. I don’t agree with everything the governor does but I’m glad he is trying to help us homeowners out and I’ll definitely be voting YES
I have NEVER heard any government official say they want to give taxpayer’s a break. It’s always more, more, more. The same excuses are always given, we’re growing and need more services. Taxpayers have the same problem but they can’t vote themselves an increase in pay to solve their dilemma, they must LIVE WITHIN THEIR MEANS. Government needs to learn this kind of economics. Doing more with less is what the taxpayers have to do, government needs to do the s.
If lower property taxes threaten local budgets, the problem isn’t homeowners keeping more of their hard earned money it’s years of bloated bureaucracy, pet projects, and runaway spending.
Families are expected to live within their means. Government should be held to the same standard.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be treated like an endless ATM while roads crumble, infrastructure deteriorates, and core services take a back seat.
A larger homestead exemption won’t break local government. It will force local government to do what it should have been doing all along prioritize needs over wants and remember who pays the bills.
1) Property taxes have doubled since 2009. Have your W2 and Alachua County services also doubled? 2) No county benefits more than Alachua County. Homeowners will pay less, so the county will make student housing pay the shortfall. This pushes the. burden of UFs exemption back towards UF and off the shoulders of homeowners.
like this!
Other than external budget pressures, there is no other incentives for Government programs and agencies to seek ways to trim excessive spending and truely inspect what services they provide are actually providing wanted value to the tax payers.
The cities will
Lose no money. It isn’t their’s to lose. Taxpayers keeping their money is not a loss to government.
DeSantis has always been for private schools and this just looks like another way to kill public education in Florida by squeezing the budget. Around 50-60% of local public school budgets come property taxes. With tax cuts that steep, counties will be forced to close more school and parents will have to send their kids to private schools or home school to get a decent education.
“parents will have to send their kids to private schools or home school to get a decent education” – that is already the situation today.
Yep.
Nope! Wrong again. The taxes for schools are not being touched, which is a shame because the local school district wastes as much money as the municipalities always have. This is just another example of someone shooting off their mouth before any facts were known.
How about mentioning that DeSantis has grants set up in already for this to be funded by, instead of acting as though all the cities are out of those EXTREMELY OVERPRICED BUDGETS, that NEED TO BE CUT!
If this passes, it will be devastating for our community. As the CEO of the Florida Policy Institute put it, “This property tax reform measure does not represent cost savings, but rather a cost shift — one that will force local lawmakers to cut local services that families rely upon or increase other taxes and fees to make up for the missing revenue. In either case, everyday Floridians ultimately pay the price for the massive loss in property tax revenue.” https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/florida-groups-warn-that-property-tax-reform-resolution-would-put-communities-and-local-services-at-risk
Truth. ☝️ This is going to make Florida even More Unaffordable. Desantis just like Trump love their supporters who lack critical thinking skills.
Here is what property tax money is used for in Alachua County:
+Law Enforcement & Jail (~41%): Funds the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, deputies, and detention facilities.
+Fire Rescue & EMS (~31%): Supports firefighters, emergency medical services, and rescue operations.
+Courts & General County Services (~13%): Pays for local court operations, legal services, and general administration.
+Transportation (~10%): Finances the construction, repair, and maintenance of county roads, bridges, and local transit initiatives.
+Parks & Libraries (~5%): Maintains community centers, public libraries, recreational facilities, and environmental programs.
Which of those do you want to cut?
Alachua public works road and bridge department froze the empty labor positions. They just hired 5 new higher paying rate Operations Unit Coordinator positions. These positions use to be called Maintenance Supervisor III at lower pay rate. A lot of employees in charge but not enough hands to actually do the work.
Freezing labor positions while creating more high-paying coordinator and management jobs is exactly why so much work falls behind. There seems to be no shortage of supervisors, coordinators, managers, directors, and now AI cameras watching employees, but somehow there are never enough boots on the ground to actually fix roads, mow rights-of-way, or complete the work taxpayers expect. The system is becoming increasingly top-heavy.
These numbers are not right. Show us all the numbers from all the revenue. This is only the homestead exempt properties. Show the total revenue of all taxes then show that percentage.High spring total revenue is like 6.4 million and the budget is 6.4 million my math is 28% lets get some real news and stop fear mongers the citizens of this poorly managed county that has put GRU in 1.6 billion dollars of dept.
The $178 million is a LIE. The services are mandated NOT the amount of money. The County commissioners oversees these budgets including the Sheriff’s. I remeber when they fought with Sheriff Sadie over the budget. So the amount is negotiable. Maybe $150 million is enough.